[October2023] Sister Cities Australia 2023 National Conference

On 12 October, the Sister Cities Australia 2023 National Conference was held in Wyndham, Victoria. Over 100 representatives from Australian local governments, sister city committees, and relevant organisations participated in this conference. This year’s theme was ‘Linking the World Together’, which I thought was timely, as it was the first face-to-face conference in four years after the COVID-19 pandemic. At the conference, topics such as examples of outstanding sister city exchanges, engagement of the younger generation, and the benefits of sister city exchanges were shared. We believed these topics were very interesting. We would like to express our respect for the efforts of all the SCA executives and everyone involved.

CLAIR Sydney promoted sister city relationships between Japan and Australia, and our Japanese local government support activities at the information table. We also exchanged opinions with the participants. The question that left an impression on me was, “Please tell us about good examples of sister city exchanges.” I think people are trying to look for new methods of exchanges after COVID-19.

As you may know, according to a survey we did in 2021, when compared to other sister city relationships around the world, there was a much larger percentage of student exchange through sister city activities between Australia and Japan. Since this year, more face-to-face educational exchange programs have resumed, such as mutual student visits between sister cities. My personal opinion is that one way of future exchanges is to cooperate in dealing with administrative challenges. For example, as I reported at last newsletter, Osaka City does initiatives of city development based on sister city exchanges.

We believe that exchanges between local governments will become more active in the future, so we would like to understand and share examples of sister city exchanges.